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Published: March 17th 2016
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This blog took a little long to write, mainly because it took a while to digest the 50 different courses of peruvian food we ate in three days...
At the start of our travels in November we had a general idea of where we wanted to go, but not much planned in detail. One of the few things we did know for sure was that at some point we wanted to go to Lima to eat. When we first visited Peru some 15 years ago we only spent a day or so in Lima and didn't think much of it. Since then Lima has earned itself a place on the map as the food capital of the world, so we knew we had to go back this time to see and taste that transformation for ourselves. The spread of Peruvian cuisine (especially ceviche) around the world is credited to a group of Peruvian chefs known as La Pandilla Leche de Tigre, named after the citrus marinade in ceviche, who have been travelling the world promoting Peruvian food. Three of these chefs have restaurants in Lima that are listed on the World's top 50 best restaurants list, so what better way
to experience Peruvian cuisine that to eat at all of them, one after the other.
So instead of a short flight from Cartagena to Panama City, we flew back south to Lima for a short week of culinary decadency. We had arranged an airBnB apartment in the middle of Miraflores in walking distance to most of the restaurants we wanted to visit. In addition to the location Miraflores itself was a pleasant surprise. A very nice and safe neighborhood with a great park along the cliffs, it was the perfect place to spend our days inbetween eating. Running in the morning, strolling through the park in the afternoon, biking and visiting Mario Testino's MATE in neighboring Barranco, we even considered paragliding at the cliffs, but decided not to out of fear of falling down after all the food.
Our first food stop was La Mar, the first of now a series of cebicherias set up by Gaston Acurio (of Astrid&Gaston fame). We had had lunch at the recently opened La Mar, Buenos Aires in December, so we wanted to see if they served the same incredible ceviche in the original Lima restaurant. They do. We had to wait
for a table for over an hour for Sunday lunch, but it was definitely worth it. A tasting of three different ceviches and a number of causas (typical peruvian potato dish with a range of toppings) were a great start of our 'restaurant week'.
On Monday we went to Maido, which is run by up and coming Japanese Peruvian chef Mitsuhara Tsumura. Born in Peru and trained in Japan he serves a great mix of Japanese and Peruvian flavors. The restaurant itself is very casual, but the 15 course Peruvian Nikkei experience was really fantastic. Definitely worthy of Maido's position on the world's top 50 best list.
Next on the list was our main reason for this culinary side trip: Central. Ranked among the top chefs in the world, Virgilio Martinez has made it his mission to use as many different ingredients as possible from all over Peru. When he's not cooking he's traveling all over Peru to find and taste new plants, animals and whatever else is edible to use in new creations. The 17 course tasting was based on ingredients found at different elevations in Peru, ranging from high mountains to deep seas and everything in
between. Of all the restaurants we visited in Lima Central was by far the most innovative and authentic, although that didn't always translate to the best tasting dishes. For instance, a very creative dish made to look like a dried leaf from the Amazon actually tasted just as it looked, like dried leaves.
For our final night of Peruvian food we went to Astrid y Gaston. Gaston Acurio is widely regarded as the first chef to promote the Peruvian cuisine. Trained in Paris and married to German Astrid Gutsche he has build a worldwide empire of Peruvian based restaurants of which Astrid y Gaston has been the flagship for the past twenty years. Last year the restaurant moved to Casa Moreyra, a beautifully renovated Hacienda in the posh San Isidro neighborhood of Lima. Although Gaston is no longer cooking himself, the restaurant is amazing. The 14 course tasting was again based on original Peruvian ingredients (including cuy), but this time with a French-European twist.
Three different approaches to Peruvian food by three top chefs. It is hard to choose a favorite among such fantastic restaurants, so we won't. A safe bet says that Peruvian food will continue to
spread around the world and that ceviche will become a staple in many (even non-Peruvian) restaurants over the next couple of years. Central may find itself on the top of the list of world's best restaurants and Maido will climb at least to a top 20 position.
Overall it was a fantastic experience and definitely worth the 5000 km detour to Lima. Next stop Panama, back to rice and beans, arroz con pollo.
Edit: for those of you who read Dutch, there's a great story in De Volkskrant of March 23, 2016 on the rise of Lima as the food capital of the world. It's a nice overview of the political and social changes in Peru over the last 10 years that have led to a new appreciation of peruvian food.
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